Life on the Mississippi By Jonathan Kozol Life on the Mississippi, by Jonathan Kozol can be analyzed by the functionalist theory of stratification in many ways. The theory states that the inequality of rewards motivates people to train for the most important jobs, such as lawyers and doctors. In the article Kozol writes about life in East St. Louis, Illinois, and the complete lack of services that it’s residents receive from the government.
It is made apparent in the article that the city is severely poverty stricken, limiting the children to a life viewed by the government as expendable (Kolo z 1991).
This, in turn, results in bare minimum spending by the state on education in the area, nevertheless giving the false hope of success and prosperity to the few that graduate. In this “third world country” inside the United States the children are almost certain to contact some sort of disease due to the lack of garbage removal, clouds of chemicals shot out of the factories nearby, or the antiquated sewer facilities that flood the city’s housing and schools with raw sewage (Kozol 1991).
The youth of this “inner city without an outer city” are often shunned away from leaving, whether by the government closing down the bridges, to the harsh racism from the white suburbs (Kozol 1991).
Although there are people that use the inequalities endured in East St Louis to motivate themselves to get out of the city, few actually succeed, as there aren’t many opportunities offered to a poor person with an inner city education. The functionalist theory fails to see this as it ignores how inequality shapes opportunity..
The Essay on The US Federal Government and state governments
The government of the United States is constantly changing. From the moment the country was born until today, there have been many eras and concepts that have transpired over the years. The United States federal government and state and local governments have gone through periods for transition from 1781 to the present day in which their relationships where continuously changing. In order to ...
